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On the russian skating chat there is info that Sofia Istomina switched from Davydov to Tsareva (seen at Sambo rink), and that Daria Panenkova switched from Tsareva to Davydov, and has been seen skating at CSKA rink (where Davydov coaches). Panenkova posted a VK link on her page, showing her skating at CSKA rink, but removed it the next day. There still a foto of the video, but it does not play. On this link, few posts below @Дарья Паненкова| Darya Panenkova3 Dec at 8:41 amhttps://vk.com/dariya_panenkova
Nothing is official or confirmed.

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Yesterday Alina Zagitova received the National (female) Athlete of the Year Award, by Russian Ministry of Sports, out of 3 final nominations. She accepted the award by video, since she is now in Canada for the GPF. All her titles were announced across the country, and the award was accepted on her behalf by Sambo-70 director.

Finally justice has been done, and Alina, weather or not she skates one more stroke, can finally enjoy her rightful title of an Olympic Champion, which she was prevented from fully enjoying for almost a year by some “unscrupulous parties” who were "disappointed" with the Olympic results, and subjected a 15-year old girl to a lot of grief and sorrow.

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I`m at a loss here. Why do they need to announce any of her titles? They are already hers. She is already olympic champion without any of it. And she would already be receiving the stipend for her achievements, wouldnt she? What exactly was she deprived of?

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I have really mixed feelings about the whole Zagitova/Medvedeva situation. They both seem like really nice girls and are obviously way more talented than I could ever be. They both have their strengths and weaknesses as skaters, but in general I think they're about equal in talent.

I frankly wasn't too invested in the ladies' event at the Olympics (an Olympics without Wakaba Higuchi, Anna Pogorilaya, or Ashley Wagner should be cancelled IMO). I was rooting for Evgenia because I had seen her over the past few seasons and liked her personality, while I didn't really know much about Alina, but I wasn't going to die if Alina won. They both skated amazing. Alina gave a dazzling performance and I was happy for her, but at the same time, I felt soooooooooo bad for Evgenia because she did everything she could and to lose by such a small margin must've been beyond heartbreaking. I wish there could've been two gold medals. I know it's such a cliche thing to say, but it's true.

I was honestly shocked after the Olympics to see how much mud-slinging was going on between the Zagitova fans and the Medvedeva fans. It was brutal. Evgenia's fans were claiming Alina stole the medal out from under Evgenia's nose, Alina's fans were saying Evgenia was a horrible skater who could never compare to Alina, and then there were the people who hated both of them, because some people are just sour. Literally, the only time I ever saw worse fighting was about Sotnikova versus Yuna Kim - and that's another story I could go on for hours about.

The issue is, it's not about the skaters. It's become a war between crazy fans who have taken it too far. The same thing happened between fans of Virtue/Moir and Davis/White, and continued when it was Virtue/Moir versus Papadakis/Cizeron. Personally, that's why I stick to pairs - less drama and less deranged fans, not to mention awesome skating.

The fan wars got even worse when Evgenia moved to Brian Orser - on both sides. People who hated Evgenia for years were suddenly jumping on her side screaming "WE LOVE YOU!!!", all the while bashing Alina relentlessly. On the other side, some Alina ubers are literally calling Evgenia a traitor for leaving Eteri. Now you all know my opinions on Eteri and I'm not going to start on that again. I don't blame Evgenia one bit for leaving, and I can see why Alina is still there. They both have their reasons and they have the right to make their own decisions without judgment from people who don't know them. No matter what, I support both Evgenia and Alina in their careers. The last thing they need is people causing chaos around them.

I think sometimes we forget we're all arguing over two teenage girls who love figure skating. Let's just watch them and enjoy two talented skaters trying to do their best.

Well, you're right about Savchenko for sure. Other than a few disappointed Sui/Han fans, the Olympic drama was pretty tame in the pairs event. Tbh I have seen some bloody fights between Duhamel/Radford and Stolbova/Klimov fans back in 2014-15. But it's on a much smaller scale. I think it's because pairs is kind of the underrated discipline of the four, and not so many people watch it.

Active Member

I have really mixed feelings about the whole Zagitova/Medvedeva situation. They both seem like really nice girls and are obviously way more talented than I could ever be. They both have their strengths and weaknesses as skaters, but in general I think they're about equal in talent.

I frankly wasn't too invested in the ladies' event at the Olympics (an Olympics without Wakaba Higuchi, Anna Pogorilaya, or Ashley Wagner should be cancelled IMO). I was rooting for Evgenia because I had seen her over the past few seasons and liked her personality, while I didn't really know much about Alina, but I wasn't going to die if Alina won. They both skated amazing. Alina gave a dazzling performance and I was happy for her, but at the same time, I felt soooooooooo bad for Evgenia because she did everything she could and to lose by such a small margin must've been beyond heartbreaking. I wish there could've been two gold medals. I know it's such a cliche thing to say, but it's true.

I was honestly shocked after the Olympics to see how much mud-slinging was going on between the Zagitova fans and the Medvedeva fans. It was brutal. Evgenia's fans were claiming Alina stole the medal out from under Evgenia's nose, Alina's fans were saying Evgenia was a horrible skater who could never compare to Alina, and then there were the people who hated both of them, because some people are just sour. Literally, the only time I ever saw worse fighting was about Sotnikova versus Yuna Kim - and that's another story I could go on for hours about.

The issue is, it's not about the skaters. It's become a war between crazy fans who have taken it too far. The same thing happened between fans of Virtue/Moir and Davis/White, and continued when it was Virtue/Moir versus Papadakis/Cizeron. Personally, that's why I stick to pairs - less drama and less deranged fans, not to mention awesome skating.

The fan wars got even worse when Evgenia moved to Brian Orser - on both sides. People who hated Evgenia for years were suddenly jumping on her side screaming "WE LOVE YOU!!!", all the while bashing Alina relentlessly. On the other side, some Alina ubers are literally calling Evgenia a traitor for leaving Eteri. Now you all know my opinions on Eteri and I'm not going to start on that again. I don't blame Evgenia one bit for leaving, and I can see why Alina is still there. They both have their reasons and they have the right to make their own decisions without judgment from people who don't know them. No matter what, I support both Evgenia and Alina in their careers. The last thing they need is people causing chaos around them.

I think sometimes we forget we're all arguing over two teenage girls who love figure skating. Let's just watch them and enjoy two talented skaters trying to do their best.

It would definitely be interesting....and we would avoid having the monopoly winning of a single lady as it happened with Medvedeva during her dominant years (and it might happen now with Zagitova) which is surely boring.
Plus both Tutk and Kihira have 3 Axel, which already represents a progress for the ladies.

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Then it will be just as long and monotonous as "I am furious/Wagner", "Ross Miner/no Olympics", "Karen Chen/boots", "V/M vs. P/C", and as annoying as "Kwan vs. anyone who won Olympic Gold" which lasted for 10 years and still does.... At least the current format mixes in few issues.

Member

I liked Maria Butyrskaya's position and counter arguments at the very end of that talk show. Both sides were given a chance to speak up. You can't just censor anything what TAT+Besti are trying to push. Let them whatever.